- Wikipedia

{"parse":{"title":"Roger Bacon","pageid":25879,"text":{"*":"

For other people named Roger Bacon, see Roger Bacon (disambiguation).

\"Doctor Mirabilis\" redirects here. For the 1964 historical novel by James Blish, see Doctor Mirabilis (novel).

Not to be confused with Francis Bacon.

\n\n

The Reverend Roger Bacon OFM
Statue of Bacon at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Born	c. 1219/20 Near Ilchester, Somerset, England
Died	c. 1292^[1]^[2] (aged about 72/73) Near Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Nationality	English
Other names	Doctor Mirabilis
Alma mater	University of Oxford

Era	Medieval philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Scholasticism
Main interests	Theology Natural philosophy, Natural sciences, Chemistry, Biology, engineering, Mathematics, Astronomy
Notable ideas	Experimental science
\n

Roger Bacon OFM (/\u02c8be\u026ak\u0259n/;^[3] Latin: Rogerus or Rogerius Baconus, Baconis, also Frater Rogerus; c. 1219/20 \u2013 c. 1292), also known by the scholastic accolade Doctor Mirabilis, was an medieval English polymath, philosopher, scientist, theologian and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empiricism. Intertwining his Catholic faith with scientific thinking, Roger Bacon is considered one of the greatest polymaths of the medieval period. \n

In the early modern era, he was regarded as a wizard and particularly famed for the story of his mechanical or necromantic brazen head. He is credited as one of the earliest European advocates of the modern scientific method, along with his teacher Robert Grosseteste. Bacon applied the empirical method of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) to observations in texts attributed to Aristotle. Bacon discovered the importance of empirical testing when the results he obtained were different from those that would have been predicted by Aristotle.^[4]^[5]\n

His linguistic work has been heralded for its early exposition of a universal grammar, and 21st-century re-evaluations emphasise that Bacon was essentially a medieval thinker, with much of his \"experimental\" knowledge obtained from books in the scholastic tradition.^[6] He was, however, partially responsible for a revision of the medieval university curriculum, which saw the addition of optics to the traditional quadrivium.^[7]\n

Bacon's major work, the Opus Majus, was sent to Pope Clement IV in Rome in 1267 upon the pope's request. Although gunpowder was first invented and described in China, Bacon was the first in Europe to record its formula.\n

v t e History of Catholic theology
Key figures
General	\n History of the Catholic Church\n Timeline \n History of the papacy\n Papal primacy \n Ecumenical councils \n Catholic Bible\n Vulgate \n Biblical canon \n History of Christian theology \n
Early Church	\n Paul \n Clement of Rome \n First Epistle of Clement \n Didache \n Ignatius of Antioch \n Polycarp \n Epistle of Barnabas \n The Shepherd of Hermas \n Aristides of Athens \n Justin Martyr \n Epistle to Diognetus \n Irenaeus \n Montanism \n Tertullian \n Origen \n Antipope Novatian \n Cyprian \n
Constantine to Pope Gregory I	\n Eusebius \n Athanasius of Alexandria \n Arianism \n Pelagianism \n Nestorianism \n Monophysitism \n Ephrem the Syrian \n Hilary of Poitiers \n Cyril of Jerusalem \n Basil of Caesarea \n Gregory of Nazianzus \n Gregory of Nyssa \n Ambrose \n John Chrysostom \n Jerome \n Augustine of Hippo \n John Cassian \n Orosius \n Cyril of Alexandria \n Peter Chrysologus \n Pope Leo I \n Boethius \n Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite \n Pope Gregory I \n
Early Middle Ages	\n Isidore of Seville \n John Climacus \n Maximus the Confessor \n Monothelitism \n Ecthesis \n Bede \n John of Damascus \n Iconoclasm \n Transubstantiation dispute \n Predestination disputes \n Paulinus II of Aquileia \n Alcuin \n Benedict of Aniane \n Rabanus Maurus \n Paschasius Radbertus \n John Scotus Eriugena \n
High Middle Ages	\n Roscellinus \n Gregory of Narek \n Berengar of Tours \n Peter Damian \n Anselm of Canterbury \n Joachim of Fiore \n Peter Abelard \n Decretum Gratiani \n Bernard of Clairvaux \n Peter Lombard \n Anselm of Laon \n Hildegard of Bingen \n Hugh of Saint Victor \n Dominic de Guzm\u00e1n \n Robert Grosseteste \n Francis of Assisi \n Anthony of Padua \n Beatrice of Nazareth \n Bonaventure \n Albertus Magnus \n Boetius of Dacia \n Henry of Ghent \n Thomas Aquinas \n Siger of Brabant \n Thomism \n Roger Bacon \n
Mysticism and reforms	\n Ramon Llull \n Duns Scotus \n Dante Alighieri \n William of Ockham \n Richard Rolle \n John of Ruusbroec \n Catherine of Siena \n Bridget of Sweden \n Meister Eckhart \n Johannes Tauler \n Walter Hilton \n The Cloud of Unknowing \n Heinrich Seuse \n Geert Groote \n Devotio Moderna \n Julian of Norwich \n Thomas \u00e0 Kempis \n Nicholas of Cusa \n Marsilio Ficino \n Girolamo Savonarola \n Giovanni Pico della Mirandola \n
Reformation Counter-Reformation	\n Erasmus \n Thomas Cajetan \n Thomas More \n John Fisher \n Johann Eck \n Francisco de Vitoria \n Thomas of Villanova \n Ignatius of Loyola \n Francisco de Osuna \n John of \u00c1vila \n Francis Xavier \n Teresa of \u00c1vila \n Luis de Le\u00f3n \n John of the Cross \n Peter Canisius \n Luis de Molina (Molinism) \n Robert Bellarmine \n Francisco Su\u00e1rez \n Lawrence of Brindisi \n Francis de Sales \n
Baroque period to French Revolution	\n Tommaso Campanella \n Pierre de B\u00e9rulle \n Pierre Gassendi \n Ren\u00e9 Descartes \n Mary of Jesus of \u00c1greda \n Ant\u00f3nio Vieira \n Jean-Jacques Olier \n Louis Thomassin \n Jacques-B\u00e9nigne Bossuet \n Fran\u00e7ois F\u00e9nelon \n Cornelius Jansen (Jansenism) \n Blaise Pascal \n Nicolas Malebranche \n Giambattista Vico \n Alphonsus Liguori \n Louis de Montfort \n Maria Gaetana Agnesi \n Alfonso Muzzarelli \n Johann Michael Sailer \n Clement Mary Hofbauer \n Bruno Lanteri \n
19th century	\n Joseph G\u00f6rres \n F\u00e9licit\u00e9 de La Mennais \n Luigi Taparelli \n Antonio Rosmini \n Ignaz von D\u00f6llinger \n John Henry Newman \n Henri Lacordaire \n Jaime Balmes \n Gaetano Sanseverino \n Giovanni Maria Cornoldi \n Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler \n Giuseppe Pecci \n Joseph Hergenr\u00f6ther \n Tommaso Maria Zigliara \n Matthias Joseph Scheeben \n \u00c9mile Boutroux \n Modernism \n Neo-scholasticism \n L\u00e9on Bloy \n D\u00e9sir\u00e9-Joseph Mercier \n Friedrich von H\u00fcgel \n Vladimir Solovyov \n Marie-Joseph Lagrange \n George Tyrrell \n Maurice Blondel \n Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lisieux \n
20th century	\n G. K. Chesterton \n Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange \n Joseph Mar\u00e9chal \n Pierre Teilhard de Chardin \n Jacques Maritain \n \u00c9tienne Gilson \n Ronald Knox \n Georges Bernanos \n Dietrich von Hildebrand \n Gabriel Marcel \n Marie-Dominique Chenu \n Romano Guardini \n Edith Stein \n Fulton Sheen \n Henri de Lubac \n Dorothy Day \n Henri Daniel-Rops \n Jean Guitton \n Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1 \n Nouvelle th\u00e9ologie \n Karl Rahner \n Yves Congar \n Bernard Lonergan \n Emmanuel Mounier \n Jean Dani\u00e9lou \n Hans Urs von Balthasar \n Marcel Lefebvre \n Frederick Copleston \n Alfred Delp \n Edward Schillebeeckx \n Thomas Merton \n Ren\u00e9 Girard \n Hans K\u00fcng \n Johann Baptist Metz \n Jean Vanier \n Henri Nouwen \n
21st century	\n Pope John Paul II \n Alice von Hildebrand \n Carlo Maria Martini \n Pope Benedict XVI \n Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez \n Alasdair MacIntyre \n Walter Kasper \n Raniero Cantalamessa \n Micha\u0142 Heller \n Peter Kreeft \n Jean-Luc Marion \n Tom\u00e1\u0161 Hal\u00edk \n Aidan Nichols \n Scott Hahn \n
\n $\"icon\"$ Catholicism portal \n

Authority control databases $\"Edit$
International	ISNI VIAF 2 FAST WorldCat
National	Germany United States France BnF data Japan Italy Australia Czech Republic Spain Portugal Netherlands Norway Greece Sweden Poland Vatican Israel Catalonia Belgium
Academics	CiNii zbMATH MathSciNet
Artists	ULAN
People	Trove Deutsche Biographie DDB
Other	IdRef SNAC

Life

Works

Opus Majus

Calendrical reform

Optics

Gunpowder

Secret of Secrets

Alchemy

Linguistics

Other works

Apocrypha

Legacy

In popular culture

See also

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

Primary sources

Reference works

Secondary sources

External links

Roger Bacon

What happened with Roger Bacon on 22 June, 1266

22 June, 1266